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Went to a showroom in Scottsdale and BOY was I outta my league. The first setup room was a Burmester ($409k) with a set of Wilson Audio speakers.
Several rooms had McIntosh setups. Not your usual Macs. I'm talking about the ones that a fork life operator comes to deliver and places your amp type setup.
I've seen these names for years but I never realized just how damn BIG this stuff really was. These stereo were like stadium sized amps.
But the coolest speaker were the MBL. It's one thing to see these on the internet but it's totally cook to see them in person.
http://www.mbl-northamerica.com/
Follow Ups:
well, these examples are what the best is capable of. and believe me, $409k isn't as much as can be spent. without the big boys in the big rooms practicing their art, we might not get affordable products to enjoy.
martin logan has affordable 'stats, even MBL has speakers that can be attained, albeit in the far too upper-crust for me. magneplanar can give a pretty nice bite of the cake for not so much.
back down here on the ground, the Andrew Jones series from ELAC will allow us the high degree of pleasure many get from far costlier designs.
so when i hear the ever so pleasant sounds that i am accustomed to emanate from the high priced spread, i know where to put my shekels.
...regards...tr
Charles, do you remember the format used for playback on such a system? Besides large analog tape and 192khz 24bit digital I'd think everything else would vastly limit things.
No, he didn't use anything because I felt bad wasting that much of the poor guys time just browsing.
I do plan on going back there one day to look at some streaming devices. And I really - REALLY would like to hear the Burmester setup play. They do have one component I can afford. A Burmester 101 120w integrated amp. Hey a boy can dream !!!
what I really would like is a set of those freakish MBL speakers. I mean WOW is the only word I can think of to describe them.
Charles, I spent more than I'd like to remember on dacs in the past and I'm actually currently enjoying a Raspberry Pi with a 20 buck dac card and apple 10watt power supply running picore doing streaming. It's probably not audiophile approved but it sounds really good to me and cost less than $90 bucks.
If you ever want to go down the same road I'd be glad to help.
Dan
LMC is where I bought my Magnepans. Run by Mike McPheeters, a super nice guy. Awesome audio rooms, well worth a visit if you're in the Scottsdale area.
I live in Fountain Hills so I'm minutes away. Light years away financially.
The young sales person was amazingly helpful despite me telling him this stuff is clearly out of my league. He was willing to demonstrate anything I wanted regardless. What a nice helpful staff. I guess they know that you never really do know who is going to walk through that door and buy a zillion dollar stereo.
I suppose "I'm just looking" and "I can't afford it" are frequently uttered just before, "okay wrap it up, but my wife is going to kill me!" :-)
This stuff isn't the wrap it up type. More like have 3 strong young guys load those wooden crates on the delivery truck.
When I walked in they were getting ready to do a delivery. And yes, they were big wooden crates, no boxes.
...you have PROBABLY gone a bit overboard!
David it's good to see your posts.
I've had a lot of "gee whiz I wish I had that" in audio since day one. The one thing I never aspired to have or even wanted was a hulking huge stereo. You should have seen some of these monsters. Speakers 7 feet tall. A Burmester preamp 34" wide by 10" high. Of course dual power amps so big that they had to have external power supplies modules which were even bigger. I mean this is stadium sized gear.
Been too busy keeping my OEM Mono AM radios running to post much here.
BTW they actually had this setup on display. The MLB with those crazy speakers. An amazing thing just to see in person. They are bigger than you would think. Around 6" tall, maybe taller than me??? and deep. I mean they are actual works of art. And the stereo that comes with it is also a work of art.
Several rooms had McIntosh setups. Not your usual Macs. I'm talking about the ones that a fork life operator comes to deliver and places your amp type setup.
I heard their largest speakers driven by their best electronics when I toured the factory some years back. Big, yes. Capable of high output levels, yes. Unfortunately, the sound quality wasn't nearly as transparent as I've heard at Sea Cliff before.
I'm not surprised at all the McIntosh "trade in" stuff they offer for sale.
I too was fortunate to have spent a few evenings in Sea Cliff, spinning LPs on the Goldmund and those big IRS speakers, along with the latest greatest amps. Way cool, revelatory, really entertaining, but the last thing I'd ever want to own.
rockdoc
A lot changed since the 80s.
Ever hear one of his Scaena or Nola Reference based systems in Room 3?
my time with Harry and TAS was early 80s, up till after the fire. I helped HP with the cleanup, and rescued a collection of slightly fire stained magazines from the dumpster, which I still have. Met him when a girlfriend's friend needed help moving out of his upstairs apartment. The whole house was shaking with Kraftwerk "Autobahn" and I had to go investigate.....
in terms of sound quality in the much larger post fire rear listening room. Both room and gear had improved significantly by then.
The Scaena's blended the subs much better than the IRS/Genesis IMHO.
The level of electronics and source quality were also in a different class. The 2301s were nice, but I preferred it when he had the VTL Siegfrieds. The Clearaudio Statement turntable was an absolute marvel of engineering. :)
At least the Genesis / Infinity IRS looked good.
These... oh my... those subs look like the kind of monstrosities one would see at a tuned cars SPL race.
A matter of taste probably!
The huge Eminence woofers only spoke when they had something to say.
A single capacitor provided low pass for the midrange drivers while a single coil provided high pass for the ribbons. Driver blending was pretty seamless with the mid driver array operating from about 70 hz to 6 khz.
Once upon a time....I had a friend....who spent hours listening to music at my house while his GF worked out with my GF. Turns out he had a rich audiophile friend. This was rather early on in my audio adventure.
After a lot of pestering on my part, and missions on his part, he reported back on what the guy had. I told him he had to get me an invite as I had never had the privilgae to hear such a system. That is when he confided that "He could be at his house but chose to listen to my system as it did a lot of little things better". I didn't/couldn't buy that considering the names and money involved.
I finally got my listen and had to admit my humble system was better in some areas. I have since become to doubt the importance of certain things. I will say one is a 3D soundstage since you mentioned it. I'm not sure it is real as I don't hear one in my living room with live music.
So what did you think? Did it, by any chance, leave you feeling it sounded great but just didn't "emotionally connect"? Strangely...on this guys system, some of the albums that sounded magical on mine....just sounded ho-hum flat on his.
I have certainly heard a 3D soundstage on many systems. Never heard it live though!
Dave
Despite the title, you haven't said one thing about the sound.
I have to be honest. The sales person was VERY nice and didn't treat me like anything but a serious buyer. Even thou I did make it clear I couldn't afford anything in the shop.
He offered to "fire up" anything in the shop but I politely said "thank you but that would just be a waste of electricity".
It was kind of pointless to even listen. Although I may go back to check out a streamer player.
Alrighty then.
My experience is many of these guys welcome guys with ears as many of the customers seem to lack them.
Be honest with them and see if you agree on things.
I have had some great experiences with staff at high-end shops. A lot of them appreciate honest feedback. And if you are listening, they get to listen too.
I even had one guy refuse to sell me a lower end (really mid-fi) amp when I was a broke kid just out of college. "Save your money, buy used". And he gave me a list of competitors with decent selections of used gear.
And then there have been complete and total a-holes. Even when I had ready cash.
I heard the MBL's at Axpona; really, really good. Even at a show. I would take the opportunity to listen.
I cannot comprehend that decision though I can respect it.
These are the MBLs I was talking about. Almost six feet tall.
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